Pastor's Message

I write a weekly message for the bulletin that comprises the Catholic Community of Washington County. This is the message that I have written for this coming weekend and I thought it would be appropriate to share here. Let us keep our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, in our thoughts and prayers as he steps down as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Let us keep in our prayers the College of Cardinals as they prepare to enter into Conclave and elect a new pope in the coming weeks. May the Holy Spirit continue to guide the Church and her leaders. In the last few messages, I have been focusing on praying for the sick and the memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes on February 11. However, I have changed the message to focus on what has taken place this past week. I am writing this message on the evening of February 11 and I am still in shock with the announcement of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, that he would be resigning at the end of the month. It has been 600 years since the last pope resigned his office, so this is something that is definitely new for us in the Church. As I listened to the coverage of this announcement, many of the commentators spoke about how humbling this is, to say that I cannot continue in my present ministry, and it is time to step down and let someone younger and stronger lead the Church. I am sure it took our Holy Father much prayer to make this decision. Now the decision is made to step down on February 28 at 8:00 Rome time. That means the Holy See will go vacant until the new pope is elected. That is my message to the parishioners and it is one for all of us as we move forward in the days and weeks ahead. Again, let us pray for our Holy Father and all the leaders of the Church. God Bless You!!!